Sometimes sport has a filthy habit of kicking you in the teeth. So the best
year of Perri Shakes-Drayton’s career ended with its worst lap, an expected
fight for a medal reduced to a miser- able, disjointed shuffle.

She may get a knocking for not rising to the big occasion, but cut her some
slack. Last year she tweaked a hamstring while warming up for her 400 metres
hurdles semi-final at the Olympics. It ended sourly. Last night she felt her
knee imploding after only one hurdle. It ended sourly. Twenty years on from
Sally Gunnell breaking the world record